2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Kayli Morgan Vineyard

(15.5% alcohol): Bright medium red. Less expressive and less fruity on the nose than the 2010, offering scents of redcurrant, spices, herbs, mocha, coffee and truffle, with an element of chocolate mint emerging with air. Seamless and supple in the middle but with a rather tight grain limiting its expressiveness in the early going. Flavors of spices, tobacco and dusty herbs are joined on the finish by a note of caramel. With its dusty tannins, this wine comes across as a bit drier than most of the earlier vintages.

The 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Kayli Morgan, which had been bottled recently, may well be one of the last 2011s to be bottled. It is an outstanding wine, and shows that there are some outstanding wines in this vintage. The beautiful, ripe, smoky blackcurrant and blackberry-scented nose is followed by a spicy, round, opulently textured and voluptuous style of Cabernet Sauvignon that has very silky tannins and tremendous lusciousness. There is not a hole to be found in this wine, and no one would ever guess it came from a somewhat maligned vintage for California’s North Coast. This full-bodied beauty should drink well for another 15 or more years, and it is precocious, so take advantage of that.||The genius of Jayson Woodbridge is not in dispute. A bigger than life character, he has a certain personal flamboyance and no-prisoners-taken persona, but what he and his team do in the vineyards and winery speaks for itself. These are remarkable wines, with his Cabernet Sauvignons some of the very finest in the world, and his Pinot Noir projects all high quality and pleasing to a multitude of diverse palates. eRobertParker.com.August, 2015